MBS Academy Blog

Andrea Bonissone, a long-time practitioner and participant in the 2011-2014 MBS Professional Foundation Training, shares some of his experiences from the current training and from decades of using the Mind Body Studies method toward improving his own quality of life. At 24, Andrea was diagnosed with Ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic inflammatory disease which primarily affects the spine and sacroiliac joint, causing inflammation and fusion between vertebrae. Since training with Mia Segal in Holland in the 1980s, Andrea has used Feldenkrais along with a few targeted therapies, steadily improving his condition over the past quarter-century.

When did you first train with Mia?

Bonissone: At the end of the 80’s, in Nijmedjan, Holland, I attended the complete Basic Training, which now corresponds to the MBS Foundation Program.

How did you first hear about Feldenkrais and Mia Segal?

Bonissone: A friend of mine knew, I don’t know how, that there was this opportunity to learn something through this method. I was interested in it because I was taking cortisone at the time, which damaged me a lot. I decided to go to a training, and Mia was a friend of my father. That was how I found out about her. As I did the training, I continued to get some cortisone, but not so much as before.